position their technologies as the “science-based” solution to increase crop yields, feed the hungry and save the planet;

escape democratic & regulatory controls;

subvert competitive markets;

…and in the process, intimidate, impoverish and disempower farmers, undermine food security and make historic profits — even in the midst of a global food crisis.

What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it’s really a consolidation of the entire food chain. —Robert Fraley, co-president of Monsanto's agricultural sector

According to the UN, corporate concentration of the agricultural input market “has far-reaching implications for global food security, as the privatization and patenting of agricultural innovation (gene traits, transformation technologies and seed germplasm) has been supplanting traditional agricultural understandings of seed, farmers' rights, and breeders' rights.”

Unprecedented Market Consolidation

Although multinational corporations have been in food and farming for decades, only over the last 10 – 20 years have they achieved today’s levels of consolidation and control.

Through a mix of tactics outlined below, the agricultural input sector has become one of the most highly consolidated, integrated and collusive in the world.

Mergers & acquisitions. Since the 1990s, the big agrochemical companies have been on a spending spree, buying up the three key segments of the agriculture industry (pesticides, seeds, and biotech) to assemble proprietary lines of chemicals, seeds, and genetic traits that are engineered to go together.

Vertical integration upward along the food chain, with the establishment of food chain clusters that combine agricultural inputs with the grain handlers' extensive processing and marketing facilities.

Cooperative strategies and collusive practices between the few major competitors, notably through the establishment of elaborate cross-licensing structures.